# Serial Comma!



## Departure Song (Jul 6, 2009)

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma


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## spaekle (Jul 6, 2009)

I was always taught that "Portugal, Spain, and France" is the right way to do it.


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## Tailsy (Jul 6, 2009)

Serial commas just look _wrong_ to me.


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## Keltena (Jul 6, 2009)

Yesplz. It just doesn't feel right if you don't have a comma there. ;_;


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## Vladimir Putin's LJ (Jul 6, 2009)

I never use serial commas.
Anyway, it's endorsed by _Oxford_ and _Harvard_, haw. Cambridge is the best of them all ):<


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## surskitty (Jul 6, 2009)

Oxford commas are good.


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## Tailsy (Jul 6, 2009)

Vladimir Putin's LJ said:


> I never use serial commas.
> Anyway, it's endorsed by _Oxford_ and _Harvard_, haw. Cambridge is the best of them all ):<


(My dad says he likes your style.
Unsurprisingly he is a Cambridge man.)


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## Shiny Grimer (Jul 6, 2009)

I can't stand the _lack_ of Oxford commas. It feels like something is missing.


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## Sandstone-Shadow (Jul 6, 2009)

I always include a serial comma, though I didn't know that they had a special name until today. That's how I was taught, and it doesn't look right to me without one. Like ... said, it feels like there's something missing.


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## opaltiger (Jul 6, 2009)

Oxford commas yay. Anything that helps reduce ambiguity is good!


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## Rwr4539 (Jul 6, 2009)

I never used to do it, but now things just don't look right without it.

EDIT: To clarify, I use it when I make lists e.g. jam, ham, and yam.


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## Lucas₇₅₅ (Jul 6, 2009)

I was never taught to do either. Serial commas just made more sense to me, so I used them.


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## Departure Song (Jul 6, 2009)

opaltiger said:


> Oxford commas yay. Anything that helps reduce ambiguity is good!


Well...


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## opaltiger (Jul 6, 2009)

Departure Song said:


> Well...


I said reduce. In most cases, it is less ambiguous, and when it is more, leaving the comma out doesn't always help. Citing one of wiki's examples:



> They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a Catholic priest.


They could just as easily be going to Oregon with Betty, who is both a maid _and_ a catholic priest. The other example relies on background knowledge to be unambiguous, so, uh.

That wiki article in general is pretty terrible, though. It uses the same example for "creating ambiguity" and "unresolved ambiguity", so clearly something is not quite right.


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## J.T. (Jul 6, 2009)

proof that this board has the most random subjects ever

I end up using them all the time in lists (as in "this, that, and these"). Doesn't look right to me otherwise.


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## Music Dragon (Jul 6, 2009)

Sometimes use it, sometimes don't. I'm pretty inconsistent on the whole when it comes to the English language...


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## Ryan the Terrible (Jul 6, 2009)

I've always been taught to use a serial comma, so I've never really even thought to _not_ use it.


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## Blastoise Fortooate (Jul 6, 2009)

There's a name for those? Just thought it was a comma...


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## Butterfree (Jul 6, 2009)

I don't use it. Seems odd and distracting to me.


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## Autumn (Jul 6, 2009)

I don't use them. I never have, and they just really don't feel right. :/


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## goldenquagsire (Jul 6, 2009)

Eh. I'm personally not a big fan of serial commas. Odd, really; I generally overuse commas in the rest of my writing.

As for the issue of ambiguity, I feel that the use of dashes can help solve the problem. Instead of "they went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a Catholic priest", we can have "they went to Oregon with Betty - a maid and a Catholic priest" - wherein one person, Betty, is both a maid and a priest; alternatively, "they went to Oregon with Betty - a maid - and a Catholic priest", wherein two people, one of whom was a priest and the other a maid named Betty, go to Oregon.

If it is recognised that the absence of a dash signifies a list, then "they went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a priest" (add as many commas to that as you wish, I don't think it really makes a difference) should obviously denote three people going to Oregon.


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## Murkrow (Jul 6, 2009)

Sometimes. Not usually.


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## Crazy Linoone (Jul 6, 2009)

I use them. I like them. I get annoyed when people don't use them. 

Although I must admit that I sometimes forget about them...


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